The Allahabad high court on Thursday directed the Uttar Pradesh government and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to file separate counter-affidavits within four weeks on a public interest litigation alleging misappropriation of public money in the birthday celebrations of Chief Minister Mayawati in January this year.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice R K Agarwal passed the order on a writ petition filed by the Socialist Front, People's Union for Civil Liberties and the UP and National Alliance for People's Movement, Allahabad.

The petition prayed that Mayawati be directed to disclose the gifts and cash she had received on her birthday at Lucknow and New Delhi on January 15, 2003 and deposit the same in the state treasury, since she had described the function as official.

Representing the government, the advocate general raised preliminary objections about the maintainability of the PIL on the ground that it was based on newspaper reports, which cannot be taken cognisance of by the court.

The AG's plea was countered by the petitioner's counsel, who said that a writ petition filed on the basis of newspaper report was maintainable and cited a Supreme Court ruling in this regard.

The court, after hearing the preliminary arguments, granted four weeks' time to the government and the CAG to file the counter-affidavits and another two weeks for filing their rejoinder.

The court ordered the case to be listed after two months.